About Rachel O’Neal, M.A.

Rachel O’Neal was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She graduated from the University of Florida in December of 2015 with a Bachelor’s of Health Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Rachel worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist Assistant at a pediatric outpatient therapy center in Gainesville, Florida until the start of graduate school. Her interest for working with neurodegenerative diseases, especially ALS, started in May of 2015 when she served as a research assistant at the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Florida. Rachel’s primary interests include swallowing, feeding, and cognitive disorders. The love for research and the drive to improve the quality of life in people with neurodegenerative diseases is what lead Rachel to pursue research under the tutelage of Dr. Emily Plowman. Rachel enjoys spending time immersing herself in learning all that the field of speech-language pathology has to offer. Her personal interests include traveling, camping, surfing, snowboarding, wakeboarding, working out, cooking, baking, photography, and anything involving the ocean or outdoors.

Since graduating, Rachel has moved on to work at the San Diego VA Medical center!